At the Bay

Audra is at the Bay as it is called - an open area of the intensive care unit where the high needs patients go after surgery. Overall she is doing well and looking good. They are working to keep all of her various levels stable, which is pretty typical but can be a bit like a roller coaster ride for us.

They just finished the evening rounds and they did not need to make any major adjustments. We are praying for an uneventful night.

Thank you for all the continued support!

Surgery is over

We just spoke with Dr. Bove and Audra is just coming out of the operating room.  She did really well and he said that everything went as planned.  There were no unexpected complications.  Her shunt is in and functioning well.  All good news.  Of course, the next few weeks are critical to her recovery and she has a long way to go but this is a huge relief.  We will get to see her in about another hour.

As I shook Dr. Bove's hand, I couldn't help but get emotional as his hands have been in my daughter's chest and they are really healing hands.  We are very thankful for Dr. Bove, his team and all the prayers and thoughts from all of you! Please keep the prayers and thoughts coming!! :)

Update

We have updates from the nurse practitioner!  Audra is doing well.  Her surgery moved along pretty much on track but faster than we were expecting, which is great.  It seems that things went as planned.  She is off the by-pass machine and they are working on finishing up.  We are expecting Dr. Bove to come up any time in the next hour to give us a full update!  It will probably be two hours until we can see her back up here in the bay, which is where the high needs patients go after surgery.

Thank you for all the positive thoughts and prayers!  Keep them coming!

BTW, we do not have any cell phone reception in the waiting room here where we have to wait for our updates.

Now Waiting

We we able to hold Audra early this morning for quite a while. We all enjoyed that. They took her down to surgery around 7:15. Now we are just waiting...

First Case

Audra is the first case tomorrow meaning she will be the first surgery. They will start at 7:30 and expect the surgery to last the entire morning. We will not get our first update until after 10:15. Please keep Audra, Dr. Bove, and the entire medical team in your thoughts and prayers. We will update as we can.

Today we were able to enjoy some family time and celebrate Audra's baptism. Our older daughter came over to visit and everything went well! She liked it when her little sister was sleeping and was all smiles. But when Audra cried, she got very upset and even cried too. Overall, things went well and she understands that Baby Audra is her little sister and she loves her :)

Dr. Bove, Audra's surgeon, stopped by for a short visit. He reassured us that there are no new risks and she is in a good position to do well. It was great to see him even for just this short time.

Surgery Friday

Surgery is scheduled for Friday at 7 am. We are excited and nervous for this huge step. Some tests will be run tomorrow in preparation for Friday. So right now we are enjoying our time with the little one.

Audra has a very calm demeanor and is slow to agitate, which is great for any baby and especially a heart baby. Right now she is generally happy if she swaddled up at least a little and has a clean diaper.

We are very excited for her to meet her big sister tomorrow! With our older daughter having a fever earlier this week, we wanted to make sure she was over her illness before meeting her little sister! Grandma and Grandpa will bring her over and we couldn't be more ecstatic!

Tomorrow we will be Audra's baptism. We are looking forward to that and thankful that our pastor will be coming down to UofM for us.

Since I was discharged within 24 hours of Audra's birth, tonight we have a room at the Ronald McDonald House here at the hospital. It is just steps from our daughter's room so we feel fortunate that we were able to secure a room there until at least Saturday. After that, we shall see but hopefully we can stay there longer.

Thanks again for all the love and support!

Welcome Audra Jane

Audra Jane was born today at 3:22 pm! She weighs 8 lbs 5 oz - the same birth weight as her big sister and is 20.75 inches long. Her HLHS is confirmed but she has no other issues at this time. She is breathing well on her own and has a strong heartbeat. She is beautiful and looks like her older sister a bit. She does indeed have a lot if hair, which explains all the heartburn!

Hopefully tomorrow we will find out when they will plan her surgery. They will keep a close eye on her to make sure all of levels are okay, which may change the plan as well.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts, prayers and support. Many of you have expressed that you want to visit but unfortunately we have to limit her visitors to immediate family only - just us, big sis, our parents and sisters. She needs to be exposed to as little germs as possible! Thank you for understanding!

What a great day!